Abstract

This modest volume provides an abridgement of the City of God and a small selection of other passages relating to political affairs, broadly conceived. It has a twenty-page introduction by Ernest L. Fortin; and there are brief introductions to specific sections. The bulk is taken up with the City of God. By including chapters from each book, the editors avoid the danger of distorting the theological shape of the work by over-concentrating on the overtly political passages of book 19 in particular. That is important. This very comprehensiveness, however, leads one to ask whether it would not be better to let students loose on the whole text; for any selection will entail some significant omissions.